io Life of Count Rumford. 



cern, it might seem unnecessary and unreasonable to go 

 behind them and dispute them. Yet we know for a 

 certainty that they do contain errors, and there is room 

 for supposing that Count Rumford's friends might have 

 misunderstood him, and that, being both of them French- 

 men, they may themselves have erred in a matter of 

 sentiment, by exaggerated expressions. It is possible, 

 too, that, looking back from his state of popular ce- 

 lebrity, comfort, and affluence, the Count himself may 

 have seen the hardships of his early years as unre- 

 lieved. 



It is certain, however, that there is exaggeration or 

 over-coloring in what is reported as having come from 

 his lips. Young Thompson was born in the same state 

 of life, and to the same conditions of labor and personal 

 dependence, as those of his ancestors for several gene- 

 rations, who, tilling their acres, cutting their lumber 

 and fuel, and working at their varied trades, had won 

 the means of a frugal subsistence, and maintained the 

 respectable position of New England yeomen. True, 

 it was a misfortune to him that he lost his father before 

 he was two years old. But he had an excellent mother, 

 who never neglected him, but seems to have treated him 

 with a redoubled love. His own letters to her from 

 abroad, after he had achieved his great distinctions, 

 letters continued to the close of her life and full of 

 affection, and the munificent pecuniary provision 

 which he made for her, will be duly recognized in the 

 course of this biography, as showing the tender and 

 grateful regard of the son for the mother. 



As to the " tyrannical step-father " who " removed 

 him from the care of his mother," I have sought in 

 vain for a shadow of a reason to justify the harsh 



